Tips To Picking The Best Office Perks

If we have learned anything from geekbusiness.com over the past few months, we know that every employee is different and what may apply or seem beneficial to one may not apply to other employees. Thus, having flexibility at the workplace is crucial to encouraging employee efficiency. We compiled our version of “Oprah’s Favorite Things” applicable only to the workplace and guess what, they won’t cost you as much as Oprah’s!

Dogs Are A Man’s Best Friend

We have noticed that letting employees bring pets to work has boosted efficiency and morale ten fold. Granted those cute, smushy, adorable creatures are rather distracting when they are making a nice little pool next to your desk, but overall, employees feel more relaxed and at home when they are working. They don’t feel boggled down by workplace pressures and are able to produce quality work product.

Tip #1: If you do choose to have a pet policy, you need to define the policy clearly. You could allow pets once a week or you could choose to allow pets every day. Irrespective of the choice you make, you need to evaluate whether your office is spacious enough to have furry creatures bouncing around and where exactly they are allowed to congregate. Also, as a business owner, you need to assess whether these pets could damage any expensive equipment or machinery lying around and whether your insurance policy will cover this.

Retreats, Holidays, Field Trips

Planning a company holiday is something you definitely need to have a budget set aside for but it’s a perk we absolutely love. Company holidays or retreats let employees not only interact with other employees outside of the office and in a more relaxed setting, but often encourage team work and bonding experiences never seen before. Moreover, the CEO can finally let his or her hair down a bit and we know how much employees respect a CEO who can come down to earth every once in awhile. If a full-fledged holiday or retreat is out of your budget, think about arranging a field trip – a one-day trip to say a theme park or vineyard. Pay for wine tasting and let your employees just have a day off to relax.

Tip #2: You don’t want to make the mistake of picking the wrong adventure. We recommend conducting a poll to see where exactly employees want to go and going from there!

Temperature Control

Our final employee perk is rather straightforward and might be something you have already accounted for. But research shows that when employees aren’t sweating it out or freezing their buns off, they actually work more efficiently. In fact, having a workable air conditioner and heater will help employees stay less distracted and complain less.

Tip #3: Offices make the mistake of just putting their air on blast. And for many employees this could mean three layers of sweaters whilst the temperature is 100 degrees outside. Try to find a good balance with temperature control. Alternatively, you can let employees play around with the temperature to see what works best but this could result in employees finding a new “water cooler” to congregate around and we definitely do not want that.

Author Bio: Amy Rhodes is a small business owner and writing about small businesses is one of her many entrepreneurial ventures. She currently writes for Andrews Air Conditioner. She loves picking the human mind and often uses her findings to develop novel business ideas.